Novo Nordisk shares plunge after Alzheimer’s drug trial fails to hit key target

Shares of Novo Nordisk fell to a four-year low on Monday after the Danish pharmaceutical company said a highly anticipated trial for Alzheimer’s disease failed to meet its main goal.

The trial tested whether semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo’s blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, helped slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Novo said Monday that semaglutide treatment improved biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s disease in two separate trials, but that did not mean a delay in the progression of the disease. The goal was to slow the patient’s cognitive decline by at least 20%.

Novo shares were down 8.3% to 279 Danish kroner as of 12:15 GMT (7:15 a.m. ET), their lowest level since July 2021. Eli Lilly also fell by about 1% biogenic The stock rose 5% in premarket trading.

While analysts described the trials as a long shot before the results, Novo himself described it as a “lottery ticket”.

“Based on the significant unmet need in Alzheimer’s disease as well as a number of indicative data points, we felt we had a responsibility to explore the potential of semaglutide despite the low likelihood of success,” said Martin Holst Lange, Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer.

It is known that Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, is very difficult to treat. It is also expected to affect more people worldwide as the population ages.

Current treatments, such as Eli Lilly’s Kisunla and Biogen/Eisai’s Leqembi, have been shown to slow disease progression by up to a third but come with the risk of serious side effects.

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